Forty years after uncle David began a 30-year career at the top of the sport Sophie Broome, 16, has won a gold medal with the British team in the European Pony Championships.

Forty years after uncle David began a 30-year career at the top of the sport Sophie Broome, 16, has won a gold medal with the British team in the European Pony Championships.

Riding her distinctive pony Spottie Dot Com in the championships at Necarne Castle, Ireland, last July, Sophie also won an individual bronze medal, just missing the gold by clipping the last 1.4-metre fence on her final round.

These eye-catching performances followed second place in a team competition at the National Cup Event in Germany and junior Champion of the Year title at this year's Royal Show in Stoneleigh.

Now convalescing at home in Crick, near Chepstow, after an operation for a spinal disorder, Sophie is under doctor's orders not to mount a horse before December 17, when she joins the British team for a display at Olympia. "It's awful not being able to jump on a horse," she said. "I can't wait to get back into the saddle again."

David Broome said, "Sophie is a tough little lady. She gets very focussed and is a very serious competitor."

He said Sophie had set herself a target to win three things this year and had won two of them and been placed third in the other. "When you can achieve that kind of result at that level you have to be impressed," he said.

Sophie said, "Show jumping is second nature in this family.

"David has helped me a lot and is always ready to give me advice. I'm lucky in that I get lots of tips from David, Liz and my father, who have all done it before."

The combination with Spottie was all the more striking because Sophie is slightly built and stands just 5ft 1ins tall, while the pony is huge.

At 14.2 hands high, Spottie is on the upper limit of the dividing line between pony and horse, but the partnership now has to part company as Sophie moves into the under-18 age range, which requires full-size horses.

Spottie is going to a new home in Ireland this month and the parting will be hard.

"He'll be going in the next couple of days and it will be a terrible wrench," Sophie said.

"It can sometimes be scary going over the jumps if the horse is not so talented, but on Spottie it seemed easy."

Sophie needs a new mount for a six weeks tour of Spain next February that will start the hard round of under-18 competitions that are the next steps in her career ladder.

"My ambition is a World Championship or an Olympic gold medal," she said. "My uncle never won an Olympic gold so it would be great to go one better than him."

David Broome won Olympic bronze medals twice in team events and was world champion twice and European champion on three occasions. He lives next door and his events centre is Sophie's practice arena.

Sophie's aunt Liz Edgar, David Broome's sister, is one of Britain's top women show jumpers and her father Fred had a successful career in the sport. Cousins Marie Edgar and Matthew Broome are also well known figures in the show rings of Europe.

"It's in the blood - I've been riding since I was about six and competing since I was 12, but I was in minor competitions even before then," she said.

Her mother Tracy Broome remembers those earliest days well.

"She couldn't wait. She used to cry because she wanted to jump the same fences as David at an age when she could walk underneath them without ducking," said Mrs Broome. "It's all she's ever really wanted to do and if she keeps going like she is, she'll be all right."